Gay friendly? For local gay community, march of progress feels like a crawl

10:54 PM,
Jun. 22, 2013

Written by

Robert Mentzer
Daily Herald Media

To some who were following the story from afar, the news on Thursday that Wausau's first-ever gay pride parade was canceled looked like it fit a familiar script: A closed-minded small town drummed out a progressive event because, well, gays aren't welcome here. Some of the web comments posted Thursday - perhaps by those who did not read beyond the headline - reflected exactly that understanding.

The reality was always much more complicated. The gay pride parade had been surrounded by serious doubts for weeks. Its organizer, who went by the likely pseudonym "Daxx Bouvier," made dubious ...